In a game in which the real winners were the goalkeepers, Coleshill Town made it nine games unbeaten in an entertaining goalless draw against one of the league’s form sides Loughborough University.
It was the hosts who would have the best of the first half chances, and may have been ahead inside the first ten minutes, Matty Robinson steering his shot just wide of the target. The returning Marvin Johnson would be unlucky not to register a shot on goal also, flashing a shot across goal before hitting the wall with a low free kick effort from twenty yards.
The visitors weren’t without their attacks, Craig Johnson having to back pedal to tip a looping long range effort over the bar, but for the most part the Loughborough frontline were restricted from finalising their attacking moves by the patched up Coleshill defence.
If this game was anything to go by, Chris Gumery has made a great recovery from his recent hamstring strain, offering first class work rate throughout. His graft was almost rewarded before the half hour, the forward cutting inside but his shot was beat away by Simon Kemp in the visitors’ goal. There would be one more chance before half time, the ever reliable Ben Porter’s long range drive whistling past the upright after Barry Fitzharris superbly won the ball on his first start for Town.
Loughborough started the second period with more direction, but it was Coleshill who would first have a few early half chances. Robinson forced a save out of Kemp before missing the target with a decent overhead kick attempt. Rob Evans’ lashed attempt would see a similar fate, finding only the advertising hoardings in a failed attempt to grab the elusive opening goal.
Coleshill were let off the hook on 56 minutes though, Raul Alexis managed to spurn a great opportunity, heading well over from Dan Delderfield’s teasing cross. For all of their fluent build up play Loughborough failed to create any further clear cut chances, almost opening the door for Coleshill to take all three points.
The turning point of the game came on 78 minutes, Marvin Johnson chased down a long floated ball into the Loughborough box, beating Kemp to the punch, but his headed attempt agonisingly dropped the wrong side of the post, the Pack Meadow faithful getting to their feet and prematurely cheering in anticipation of a goal which never came.
Ben Porter saw a carbon copy of his earlier effort fly wide before substitute Neil Davis had a shot blocked, ensuring that the game had passed Coleshill by. Manager Carl Adams commented on his team being ‘very flat’, which he put down to the sheer amount of games played in such a short space of time. Indeed, the view within the Coleshill camp is that it was two points lost rather than a point won.